Troy smiled at her. “Well done, honey. I’m proud of you.”
“Can I hold him?”
“Sure,” the delivery nurse helped her to her feet.
Her colleague handed her newborn son over, “Here he is. Ten fingers and ten, tiny toes.”
Bonnie took the crying human being in her arms and scanned him up and down. “My little angel.”
By all accounts, the her son was perfect. Ten fingers and ten, tiny toes. The comfort of his mother’s embrace was enough to stop him crying and relax.
Finally, he opened his eyes. The first thing he ever saw in his life was the face of his mother smiling back at him. The second thing he saw was the gracious smile stretched across his father’s face.
“Do you have a name in mind for him, Dr. Whitaker?”
Bonnie kept her eyes trained on the child and giggled, soaking up every atom of his body.
“We were thinking Adam.”
“Huh?” The baby stopped kicking around and shot his mother a look of confusion. “Adam?”
“Yes?” Bonnie felt hurt by her son’s protestation. Confused, further, by his ability to speak at a mere ninety seconds old, “Why, what’s wrong with that?”
“That’s a bit of an obvious name, isn’t it?” The baby said, barely able to contain his disdain, “The first human being ever created? Bonnie?”
“But, I—”
“Bonnie?” The baby snapped his fingers. “No, it’s no good. I don’t think she can hear me.”
Bonnie screwed her face. A deep-rooted feeling of illness socked her in the gut, “Who are you talking to—”
A shooting pain stormed across the back of her head, followed by a prolonged and intense tingling in her ears.
“Yaarrggh!”
The baby in her arms fizzed in and out. He opened his mouth and spoke once again. “Bonnie, can you hear me?”
“No, no, it’s not right—”
“She’s speaking,” the baby said, nonchalantly, “Bonnie, I know you can hear me. If you can hear me—”
“—Just nod your head,” Tripp finished his sentence, crouching in front of her as she sat in the electric chair.
Bonnie jolted in the seat and pressed herself back against the headrest in fright, her eyes wide open.
“Oh, God. Oh, God.”
Her breathing quickened as she attempted to acclimatize herself to her surroundings.
Tripp looked at Wool for a response. “There we are, we’re back online.”
“What am I doing in here?” Bonnie spluttered and caught her breath. “Why did you plug me into the electric chair?”
Tripp’s face soured. He rose to his feet and stood next to Wool, looking down at her. “Bonnie, we have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“We know you’re confused,” Wool said. “But we want you to know the truth.”
“Okay, I’m listening.”
Tripp folded his arms and cleared his throat. “There’s no easy way to say this, Bonnie, so it’s probably just better to come right out with it. You’re an Androgyne Series Three Unit.”
Bonnie stared at Tripp, waiting for the “ha-ha, got you” moment that would never come.
Sure enough, even after Tripp’s pregnant pause, it never came.
“Bonnie?”
She blinked and scrunched her face. “Are you serious, right now?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“What lessense. Series three units don’t recharge in N-Vigorate chambers. That’s old school,” Bonnie stood out from the seat and extended her arms, ironing out the kinks on her muscles. “Anyway, I have a husband and a son. I was born before the first Androgyne series was even invented. Your jokes are starting to wear thin.”
“No, Bonnie,” Wool said. “We figured it was better to be honest with you. When you time out, or otherwise lose consciousness, you seem to be suffering from amnesia.”
“We think your battery was damaged in the fight. You’re not operating properly.”
“Is that so?” Bonnie lifted her metal leg and placed her foot on the seat. She unraveled her pants leg across her shin and wiggled her metal toes around. “I lost my leg in a vehicle accident, before they abolished flying cars.”
“No. You didn’t. USARIC programmed you to think you did.”
Bonnie didn’t believe a word coming from her captain’s mouth. “Why would they do that?”
“To keep their options open.”
Bonnie held her right hand at the pair, dismissing their stupidity. “Shut up.”
Wool walked to the N-Vigorate chamber door. “We don’t have much time, Bonnie. We need your help—”
The stripped lights stretching across the ceiling dipped in and out as the walls began to rumble.
Concerned, Wool looked up and around her immediate vicinity, “What’s that?”
“Seems Manuel’s got the engine working.”
Bonnie walked into the middle of the room and scanned the harshly-lit walls. She closed her eyes and inhaled. “Are we still lost?”
“Yes,” Tripp said.
The humming from the power behind the walls underscored Bonnie’s recollection of events. “The last thing I remember was a pink gas. My eyes went funny. Anderson rescued us,” her speaking slowed, remembering something vital. “Tor. Baldron. They tried to kill us.”
Tripp raised his eyebrows, curious that Bonnie had remembered. “That’s right. You remember?”
“Anderson,” Bonnie added, feeling a sense of protectiveness. “Where is she?”
Wool wasted no time in hurrying up the expedition. “That’s what we want to find out—”
The entire chamber rocked back and forth like a fairground ride. Dust coughed around them from the ceiling. The near-deafening chaos and vibrations never abated.
“Jesus, what was that?” Tripp grabbed Wool in his arms and ran with her to the door, “Quick, with me.”
Bonnie twisting around on the spot and watched the far wall crack apart, shooting sifts of white and pink light through the ceramic. “What is that?” Quick-thinking, she followed the cracks crawl up the wall and shatter the ceiling, threatening to propel a chunk of it at her face.
Whoosh.
Chunks of debris whizzed past her head. She splayed out her legs and hit the ground. It stabbed down and created a vicious dent in the ground. Just two more inches to the left and Bonnie could have been sold as scrap metal.
“Quick, get out of here,” Bonnie stomped her metal foot to the floor and propelled herself into the air, thumping rocks of falling detritus against the far wall.
Wool and Trip ran through the door, but the spectacular light show was too enthralling to run away from. Wool skidded on her heels and tugged at Tripp’s arm, forcing him to stop.
“No, wait. We can’t leave Bonnie there, we—” she couldn’t finish her sentence. The sight beyond the frame of the door was too much to handle.
“Where are you?” Bonnie screamed at the splattered, milky sky that had opened up around her. “You coming for me? Come and get me.”
“Bonnie!” Wool wailed at her as she ran away from the door and into the beautiful sand-drenched horizon, “Bonnie, come back!”
“What the hell is going on here?” Tripp muttered as he witnessed the N-Vigorate chamber break away into nothingness. The walls smashed against the sand, kicking a wisp of saturated rock into the air.
“Manuel said we weren’t on Opera Beta,” Wool clasped Tripp’s hand and ran with him along the corridor, “I’m starting to believe him. We gotta find Jaycee, quick.”
Tripp barreled along the walkway with her, their footsteps clanging against the metal grills. He held up his left forearm and screamed into his Individimedia ink.